Kodi/LibreEec Guide - show program set to record.

[mvallevand]

Since UI clients meet all those conditions and run on many more hardware types than the server, you need to explain specifically why you feel UI clients are not simple and clear.

Perhaps you aren't used to the remote control shortcuts https://github.com/emveepee/Testing/wiki...dReference remembering UI clients are designed for a remote but do use a mouse and keyboard. If you are using a CEC only remote it will be harder to use since a PVR works better with more keys, you might even be able to configure your Humax remote with the RPi.

As note for UI clients you can change the menu style and orientation and remove items, but you need to do that by editing config.xml (with nano in your case). Rather than coding a client, you can also create a new UI client skin, you could probably make it more Quartz-like if you wanted.

Martin

[sub]

- does NOT have extraneous items like Photos, Music etc

As Martin mentioned, you can easily disable these and never have to see them again.


In config.xml, in the <MenuLayout> section, set:

Code:

<MenuItem enabled="false">Music</MenuItem>
<MenuItem enabled="false">Videos</MenuItem>
<MenuItem enabled="false">Pictures</MenuItem>

[ceejayemm]

Ok, admission time. 

I thought I had tested KNEWC as a Kodi program addon some time ago but it seems I was mistaken, perhaps I got side tracked by the simplicity of the Quartz skin and Sub's official client.  

I have been trying out KNEWC since I got home and it seems to do all that I want, including highlighting future programmes already set up to be recorded in the EPG as per my original starting point.  The documentation:

https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=50833 

seems a bit out of date in places, although I got things going by downloading the v1.08 version of the repository - is this the latest version ?  The only thing I haven't been able to do is to have Kodi start up the KNEWC interface on startup:

For those not interested in the Kodi functionality it is possible to have Kodi launch KNEWC on startup. To do that find the Kodi addons folder http://kodi.wiki/view/Special_protocol#Available_Paths and in script.xbmc.knewc and in there edit the file addon.xml and change <!--extension point="xbmc.service" library="default.py" start="startup"></extension--> to <extension point="xbmc.service" library="default.py" start="startup"></extension>

Things are obviously slightly different in an LE/Kodi installation but I have found the addons.xml file (at /storage/.kodi/addons/service.nextpvr) and made the changes above but this seems to have no effect.  Reading the above, I am assuming that on startup Kodi will simply display the KNEWC interface and none of the rest of the Kodi interface stuff ? Or is this too simplistic ?

Making progress hopefully.

Chris

[BrettB]

Ok, admission time. 

I thought I had tested KNEWC as a Kodi program addon some time ago but it seems I was mistaken, perhaps I got side tracked by the simplicity of the Quartz skin and Sub's official client.  

I have been trying out KNEWC since I got home and it seems to do all that I want, including highlighting future programmes already set up to be recorded in the EPG as per my original starting point.  The documentation:

https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=50833 

seems a bit out of date in places, although I got things going by downloading the v1.08 version of the repository - is this the latest version ?  The only thing I haven't been able to do is to have Kodi start up the KNEWC interface on startup:

I'm glad that you finally tried out the KNEWC interface. KNEWC uses the UI Client functionality of NextPVR that we have been suggesting for you. With it, the screens get generated on the server and sent to the client. This means that the user gets the same look and feel regardless of the actual client hardware.

If you aren't going to use any of the other Kodi functionality, then you would be better off getting rid of it (and KNEWC) completely and just using a native UI Client on your hardware. I would maintain that the easiest/best of those would be to use uidroid on an AndroidTV device.

If you have a smart TV which uses AndroidTV, you can install and run the client directly on the TV without any additional hardware. Otherwise, the inexpensive TiVo Stream 4K or ONN AndroidTV box are great options. I personally really like the TiVo Stream because its remote has a numeric keypad which can be used for jumping/skipping during playback, list jumping, as well as direct channel selection.

There are also UI Clients for Windows, Linux, LG WebOS TVs, and Roku TVs/streamers (although Roku has made this one more difficult to install and maintain-so I wouldn't recommend it for someone getting new client hardware). And, again, since the screens are generated by the NextPVR server, these all have the same look and feel regardless of the client hardware.

[ceejayemm]

Brett

Thanks for your comments. I don't have a smart tv and buying another addon dongle is, at the moment, a last resort. I don't have a Windows system available but I do have boxes that do, or can have, a Linux build on them. As well as the Kodi/LE NextPVR server setup I am currently testing, I also have an RPi 4 with a Linux install of NextPVR server backend on it that works well and I am used to using the Web App to administer that. I could also resurrect a Docker version of the NextPVR server which I haven't used for a while, so remote backend servers are not a problem for me. I can't say the same for a Linux client and there have been various warnings that web app browser based viewer isn't really up to scratch. This is why I have been exploring the Kodi/LE options and have landed, so far, on the KNEWC interface which works well but would be better for me if it was possible to get Kodi/LE to boot/start straight into it. At the moment it seems I have to boot Kodi, use the Kodi menu options to navigate to the KNEWC program addon interface and then I am ready to go.

If there was a supported standalone Linux client I could use with a remote server backend I would be happy to ditch Kodi/LE as I am only using this for the KNEWC interface. There may be one but my searches haven't found it yet, the nearest I have got was the YAUICLIENT but the Linux version of that seems unfinished/abandoned (sorry Martin, building from scratch isn't for me).

Chris

[mvallevand]

The repository version number 1.08 is just a link to the source where you get the addon not the addon itself. After I put it on GitHub it will never need to change, and add-on updates flow automatically. The GitHub release history that comes from the repo is here https://github.com/emveepee/X-NEWA/releases and if you identify a problem I can still look at it and the patch would come from the same repo.

There aren't many updates though since the beauty of UI clients is they don't need to get updated with each version of NextPVR. I don't test or even install knewc anymore or even install it so I let you users tell me what is wrong. I don't control the UI and the UI is dated in places but honestly every time sub tries to modernize the look he gets kickback. To be fair, sometimes simple is better. I find the Kodi UI gets less usable with each update just because of all the unnecessary features that get added I am sure video collectors are happy, I just like to watch what I record.

There was never a yauiclient for Linux, you probably are looking at the old v4 nlite code. I probably won't be doing anything more on yauiclient for the RPi given the lack of interest. The client itself isn't my concern, it is all the other things needed to get a client working, audio and video configuration, remote controls, autostarting etc plus the general lack of Linux knowledge. If there was a community of support that would be different.

For autostarting KNEWC the Kodi process changed so I have updated the KNEWC readme sticky on Autostarting to match the documented method.


Martin

[ceejayemm]

Martin

Thanks for the update to use the revised Kodi autostart procedure which seems to work even if it is a little 'clunky'. What is a little confusing is that the main Kodi menu screen still appears when LE/Kodi is started however after a brief 'Please Wait' session the KNEWC interface starts up and is usable. I can live with this.

Thanks to everybody who contributed to this solution.

Regards.

Chris

[mvallevand]

You are still running Kodi, on a slow machine after all. I'm assuming you turned pvr.nextpvr off but my experience is that KNEWC comes up faster the all the start up dialogs that pvr.nextpvr does which is equally "clunkly" in my view.

If the client is on server machine you also need to wait for the NextPVR server, UI clients don't have any startup UI. You could probably script things to wait for NextPVR.

Martin